Elevation Dock+; Kickstarter success finally delivered, but lacks support for iPhone 5

Back in December 2011 I backed one of the most popular Kickstarter projects at the time, the Elevation Dock, and paid $150 to get the limited edition SunOrange dock. The estimated shipping date was April 2012 and since I had an iPhone 4S at the time I was looking forward to using the dock with my iPhone. It is now 10 months later and the Elevation Docks are now shipping to backers, unfortunately I now have an iPhone 5 and the dock doesn't yet work with it.

Check out my image gallery of the SunOrange Elevation Dock+.

After backing various projects over the last year, I now back projects I like with less enthusiasm and tempered expectations. Thankfully, the makers of the Elevation Dock have stated they will ship out replaceable adapters to backers so they can convert the dock to support the iPhone 5. In the meantime, I am letting my daughter use my dock with her iPhone 4 and tested it out for this review.

The SunOrange Elevation Dock arrived in a simple white box with a default USB cable about one foot in length. Inside the box you will find an Allen wrench to remove the two bottom screws, a long six foot USB cable, and a compact USB A/C charger with prongs that fold down for easy travel. I replaced the short cable with the long cable so I could place the Elevation Dock on my desk and run the cable below to power it up.

I backed the Elevation Dock+ so that means the dock I have has an audio port that can be used to plug in the dock to speakers. The Line Level audio out is better than outputting from the microphone jack because it bypasses the iPhone's internal amplifier for higher fidelity sound.

The dock is made of aluminum and is weighted well to keep the dock and your iPhone secure. The opening for your iPhone is large enough to support many iPhone cases and if you use a case you simply rotate the dock adapter in the slot. There is a long rubber piece at the back of the dock opening to keep things secure and upright. The rubber piece can be removed if your case requires more room in the dock. There are two openings at the bottom of the dock slot and the slot is wide so these features seem to help make the audio out on the iPhone better. Facetime is also easy with the iPhone in the dock.

Like the iPhone, the Elevation Dock is extremely well made and is quite elegant. It is large, but I like the curves and looks of the dock. I am a fan of orange and the SunOrange color looks great. I can't wait to get the adapter for the iPhone 5 and just hope it doesn't take as long as the Elevation Dock did to arrive.

The bottom is removed with two small screws and inside you will see where you can easily replace the USB cable. There is some circuitry inside to support the charging and shielded line out audio port. There are also two large rubber feet on the bottom to keep the dock from sliding around.

You can pre-order the Elevation Dock+ in silver or black for $120 or the Dock for $90. There is no time frame for delivery of the Elevation Dock. While I focused on using it with the iPhone, you can also use it with the iPod touch and nano.